Konoha's conduit
by WillieF19
Summary: The battle at the valley of the end ends differently. Naruto dies and then returns to life with the power of conduit Cole Mcgrath. See how Naruto's life changes from being a Jinchuriki to a conduit.
1. Chapter 1

_**I don't own Naruto or Infamous**_

_**Chapter 1**_

"Sasuke." Were the last words the blond said before he lost consciousness from his best friend's attack.

This was the scene that will torment said best friend, Sasuke Uchiha for the next three years.

This all started out when Sasuke awoke in a hospital with Sakura clinging to him like normal, a busty blond woman standing over him, and his rival Naruto looking at him with that grin that Sasuke started to dislike. Apparently he has been out of it since his encounter with Itachi, who had for some reason been targeting Naruto and blew Sasuke off when he came to claim his revenge. The busty blond turned out to be Tsunade Senju, who was brought back to be the fifth hokage, not that Sasuke cared. All Sasuke cared about was settling the score with Naruto before he continued on his quest to get stronger to kill Itachi. Naruto had beaten Gaara of the sand when he himself could not. This irritated Sasuke to no end and it really hurt his pride when Sakura thanked him for saving her and he had responded that it was Naruto. Sasuke later challenged Naruto to a fight when he had next returned to the hospital. Naruto agreed to a spar when Sasuke got out of the hospital, but Sasuke didn't want that. He wanted a fight now. He got what he wanted soon enough. He was later standing across from Naruto on the roof. Naruto told him to put his headband on, but Sasuke denied, and then Naruto starting talking about being equal Konoha shinobi. This infuriated Sasuke at the idea of being equal with Naruto, the dead last of the academy. They engaged in a brief fight that ended with Naruto charging an unknown jutsu, a ball of pure chakra and Sasuke retaliated with his chidori in midair. Sakura ran out to stop them, but it was a stupid action because it put her in the way of their soon to be colliding attacks. Before they could hit the poor girl Kakashi sensei arrived and threw the boys by their wrists into two huge water containers. Sasuke smirked when he noticed that he punched a hole through his target whereas Naruto only put a dent in it with a small hole. Sasuke back flipped off the roof to see that Naruto's jutsu blasted the entire back of his target out. A feat that was more impressive than his. Sasuke only got angrier. Later he was confronted by his sensei who told him them revenge wasn't the right path. Sasuke offered to kill all Kakashi's loved ones and see how he felt. Kakashi replied that they were already dead. This didn't help Sasuke's mood at all. Later he was attacked by four Sound shinobi that worked for Orochimaru and also had curse marks. Sasuke was easily beaten by his opponents, who later reminded of his ambition to kill Itachi and gave him Orochimaru's offer of power. Sasuke thought very little on the offer and packed his bag as soon as he got home. On his way out he saw Sakura. He told her to go home, but she denied and became more annoying. In a way it felt good that someone cared for him, but he couldn't let that slow him down. He thanked her and knocked her unconscious so she wouldn't cause any problems with his defection. Sasuke later left with the Sound four as they were called. They gave him a pill that would allow him to grow stronger, but they had to carry him in a coffin. They also made an odd statement about him dying first and only once, as if this process would kill him, but he'd still be alive afterwards. He agreed and they carried him in a cylindrical coffin. He stayed in this coffin until he broke free, stronger than before. He turned to see a Sound nin he didn't recognize and his best friend Naruto. Sasuke ran off in pursuit of Orochimaru. He later got to the Valley of the End, just short of the border he needed to cross to get to Orochimaru. He was stopped when Naruto called out to him. Naruto tried to reason with Sasuke, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. A small battle proceeded with Sasuke dominating the fight up until the point where Sasuke stabbed A chidori though Naruto.

This was all flashing through Sasuke's head as he looked at his best friend in shock at what he had done. Before he could make an attempt to remove his hand a light erupted from Naruto and moved outward. It blinded Sasuke. The resulting flash of light went off like an explosion and spread outward to a least the size of an average sized village.

When the light disappeared Sasuke was standing looking down at Naruto in utter shock. Sasuke had assumed he was dead. Naruto Uzumaki, his best friend was dead. Without even realizing it Sasuke's fully matured Sharingan, which got that way during their battle, evolved again into what is known as the mangekyou sharingan.

Lost in his own grief, Sasuke let his headband fall off while he walked away. During the fight Naruto had tried his hardest to at least get a cut on Sasuke's forehead. It didn't happen. He got a scratch on the metal piece, but that was all. Sasuke headed to Orochimaru. He didn't want Naruto's sacrifice be in vein. He was going to kill Itachi not only for himself and the Uchiha clan, but for his best friend Naruto Uzumaki.

_**Later**_

Kakashi followed Pakkun until he reached the VOTE. What he saw almost broke his heart. His sensei's son appeared to be dead with a hole in his chest. Kakashi forced himself not to cry as he lifted the blond up and carried him home.

When he later reached the front gates he looked up to see Naruto's graduating class, their sensei, team Gai, Gai, Iruka, Tsunade, Shizune, and the Sand siblings. Neji and Choji were in wheelchairs, but otherwise fine.

The sight of Naruto hurt them all. They sacrificed so much for it to turn out like this.

Tsunade tried to look Kakashi in the eye, but he looked away in shame. He personally felt that he failed his sensei, Obito, and his Genin team.

The others noticed his expression and they themselves looked even sadder.

"Where is Sasuke-kun sensei?" Sakura asked looking behind Kakashi

The others were shocked that she seemed to care more for the person that left her behind than the person who promised to bring him back for her.

Kakashi was shocked too, but he was too sad to get angry at the girl's lack of affection for her dead teammate in front of her. His face, or what she could see looked depressed and Sakura caught the message. Unfortunately she became mad instead of sad.

"You should have left that baka behind sensei, It's his fault that Sasuke-kun left and isn't here now. I knew I was wrong to trust this pathetic excuse for a ninja." Before Sakura could continue, she felt sand wrap around her throat.

Before Gaara could use his sand to kill the girl, a voice called out.

"I'm sorry Sakura." Naruto said as best as he could as he allowed a tear to fall down his cheek. This shocked everyone including Kakashi, who checked for a pulse, but felt none.

There was an immediate reaction to his words though. Kakashi laid Naruto down and Tsunade used a diagnostic jutsu to check his vitals,

"Their weak, but they aren't getting worse." Tsunade commented. Everyone took this as a good thing except Sakura. She was berating him in her head for fear of the psycho Gaara, in her mind, killing her.

Naruto was brought to the hospital and was on constant watch day in and day out.

_**4 days later**_

Naruto had awoken and everyone was happy. Everyone except Sakura that is. Everyone noticed her discontent for the blond and made sure to keep an eye on her whenever she was around.

Naruto awoke and they noticed that he had a control over lightning that not even the most skilled lightning affinity users had. Jiraiya, who wanted to take Naruto away on three year training trip anyway, offered that Kakashi accompany them so that he can try to help Naruto with his new found control over lightning. Tsunade agreed. All were sad to see Naruto leave. After hearing the details of the fight all wanted him to return stronger than before and be the one to collect the bounty that had been placed on Sasuke's head when Konoha made him a missing nin. Sakura was none too pleased with this course of action, but she had a plan.

Everyone bid Naruto farewell on his training, even Sakura which shocked everyone except Naruto. Although she showed open contempt for Naruto when he first returned she was very nice to him, even going as far to say that they would bring back Sasuke together, this was obviously before Tsunade placed the bounty on his head.

After Naruto was gone everything returned to normal, until one day.

"Lady hokage, may I come in?" Sakura asked as she poked her head in the door.

Tsunade was concerned about Sakura's fake behavior around Naruto, but she wanted to know what the girl was planning, so she played along.

"Yes come in Sakura." Tsunade waved her in.

"I have a request lady hokage." Sakura said, pretending to be as timid as people believed her to be. She had really hoped that everyone who saw her outburst against Naruto would just play it off as stress and emotions.

"What is it Sakura?" Tsunade asked

"I want to be your apprentice, so I could get stronger for Naruto. I'm useless now and me getting stronger can only help him in the future." Sakura stated. She knew Tsunade liked Naruto, so she hoped that appealing to her Naruto loving side would help.

"Denied." Tsunade said

"Thank you, you won't regret… Huh?" Sakura asked

"I am denying your request because I know that you don't have good intentions. We all heard you when you berated Naruto, when we all thought he was still dead." Tsunade said

"He should have stayed dead for what he did. He promised to bring back Sasuke and didn't keep his promise." Sakura replied hotly.

"That's it! Get out of my office before I give you a one way ticket on the Jiraiya express (AN: pretty self-explanatory if you know how Tsunade deals with Jiraiya)." Tsunade said as she smashed her fist into the desk and stood up cracking her knuckles. Sakura got scared and immediately left the room.

Tsunade was fuming so much at the pink haired girl's actions and words that she needed to vent her frustration, or else she'd find the girl and beat her to within an inch of her life. To vent her frustration Tsunade beat on a kage's greatest enemy, paperwork. She finished all her paperwork for the next month somehow and was still angry so she made a shadow clone, transformed it into Jiraiya and gave it a special ticket on the Jiraiya express.

_**Miles away from Konoha**_

A figure landed in front of the trio. When the dust cleared it was Jiraiya. The trio was shocked until the clone DE transformed and then poofed away.

"What did you do now Pervy sage?" Naruto asked

"Nothing. I've been with Kakashi since I returned to the village." Jiraiya said as he ran in the direction they were heading. He was too frightened of Tsunade showing up herself to give him the real punishment that the clone was just demonstrating.


	2. Chapter 2

_**I don't own Naruto or Infamous**_

_**Chapter 2**_

Three years had passed since the day that Naruto headed out with Kakashi Hatake and Jiraiya of the sanin. Naruto had done a lot while he was gone. He trained hard with his lightning powers. The best part was that Naruto could perform lightning jutsu, without chakra. This gave him the ability to take any jutsu he saw, knew, or heard and upgrade it to a level where only he could use it. Naruto had also taken the Chunin exams in Kumo and was promoted. The first two stages were different from Konoha's, but Naruto still passed those. There was no preliminary stage. When the third stage came Naruto showcased his skills and even used the lightning armor he heard A, the raikage, was famous for. Naruto heard a little of it from Kakashi, who told Naruto of his father and from Killer B, who Naruto thought was weird at first. They bonded and sparred often during the month before the Chunin exam finals. If things had gone differently during the battle at the VOTE, Naruto would have been able to gain full control over Kyuubi's chakra like B had done with the 8 tailed beast. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Sasuke's chidori had somehow killed Kyuubi, leaving only enough chakra inside of Naruto to heal the hole in his chest before all traces of Kyuubi was completely gone. This shocked Naruto, but he was grateful. Naruto also did extensive chakra control training as well as sage mode training. With Kyuubi, Jiraiya assumed that Naruto would never be able to use sage mode, at least not completely, but now that Kyuubi was gone that worry went with it. Naruto was able to merge with the elders and gain sage mode, but he mastered the ability to the point where his body wouldn't change like Jiraiya's does when he gets webbed feet and a horny nose.

Upon return to Konoha, Naruto was ecstatic. He hadn't seen his home in three years. He was excited, but his lessons with his two teachers, who he now viewed as godfather and uncle, mellowed him out a lot. Naruto was wearing a completely different outfit from the one he left in. Naruto was wearing a similar outfit to Kakashi's except the pants and shirt was black. The standard Chunin flak jacket and a trench coat that was red with black flames. His arms also had armbands that tied down his sleeves(AN Exactly like his father except for the different colors). The first ones Naruto ran into was Konohamaru, his friends and a girl that Naruto didn't know.

"Hey guys. Who's the other girl?" Naruto asked

"Hey big bro. That's Hanabi Hyuga. She's Hinata's younger sister. Nice clothes." Konohamaru explained, but it appeared that Hanabi didn't like that description of her; all but Konohamaru noticed this though.

"Hi Naruto. I was at the Chunin exam finals where you beat my cousin Neji and I can say I truly enjoyed the match. This baka didn't say it, but I'm Konohamaru's girlfriend." Hanabi said

"That's awesome lil bro." Naruto said as he ruffled Konohamaru's hair.

"When did you make Chunin Naruto?" Hanabi asked

"Last year in Kumo. The exams were slightly different than the ones here, but the finals were exactly the same and I won." Naruto said. He didn't know if they knew about any part of the exams outside of the little Konohamaru and his friends heard when they interviewed everyone before the second stage and the finals which was open to the public.

"Congratulations, although I think you should have been promoted during the Chunin exams here." Hanabi stated

"I would have if the third hadn't died. He was the person in charge of that. Shikamaru only got promoted because his sensei saw that he was Chunin material and told his father, the third, and he left a note to make Shikamaru Chunin if he made it to the finals." Naruto explained as Hanabi and Moegi nodded their heads

"When did you get back?" Udon asked

"Just now, but we really got to go." A voice called out. The Genin didn't notice it, but Kakashi and Jiraiya were behind Naruto the entire time. It was Jiraiya who spoke

"Alright, give me a minute. Konohamaru did you practice anything I taught you?" Naruto asked

"I'm getting better with my shadow clones and the Rasengan, but I've stopped doing the sexy jutsu. It's only good for a distraction against a perverted man, but it's also an opening for an opponent that's female or not perverted." Konohamaru said. These weren't his words though, when Hanabi had first seen the jutsu, she was disgusted. Later when she considered him for her boyfriend, she told him to never use the jutsu again by explaining the advantages and disadvantages. Not wanting to get beat up by angry women or give any enemy an opening on the battlefield, Konohamaru dropped the jutsu altogether.

"That's good. I was going to tell you to drop that jutsu anyway. It was cool to me when I was a prankster, but I'm a ninja now and it's useless compared to the more awesome jutsu I can use." Naruto bragged. Hanabi had a small suspicion that the jutsu he was referring to might have been just as perverted, but then she remembered his match against Neji. He would need stronger jutsu to have become a Chunin, so she gave him a second chance to prove that the jutsu weren't perverted at another time.

"Come on brat." Jiraiya said as he and Kakashi started walking off toward the hokage tower. Naruto followed after them and before they could reach the tower they ran into Shikamaru and Temari.

"I'll catch up." Naruto said as he sent a clone with them.

"Whatever brat." Jiraiya said as he and Kakashi walked off.

"Hey Shikamaru, Temari!" Naruto called out, but not as loud as he used to be.

"Naruto?" Shikamaru asked

"Yeah it's me. I'm finally back." Naruto said

"Wow, brat you've grown." Temari teased

"Yeah and I see you made Chunin." Shikamaru said

"Yeah I went to Kumo last year." Naruto said

"Well at least aren't that far behind." Shikamaru said

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked

"Oh yeah you don't know. Everyone, but you Sakura and Ino aren't Jounin from our graduation class. Neji, Tenten, Lee, Temari, and Kankuro all made Jounin too." Shikamaru explained

"And Gaara made Kazekage." Temari said

"Wow. Congratulations you two. Why is Ino and Sakura still Chunin?" Naruto asked. The two Jounin noticed the lack of affectionate suffix at the end of Sakura's name and inwardly smiled. He may not have known about her contempt for him, but he at least lost his hopeless crush on her.

"Sakura is still a Genin. After you left she asked to be apprenticed by lady hokage, who turned her down. Without anyone to teach her she remained a Genin. Ino is still a Chunin because our team was the last to take the Jounin exams because I was waiting on Chouji and Ino to make Chunin. When we took the Jounin exam me and Chouji got promoted, but Ino wasn't." Shikamaru explained

"That was a while ago and ever since her failure she has been working with lady hokage as her apprentice. She plans to make Jounin with you since she knew that you couldn't be a Jounin before you returned." Temari said

"Why couldn't I?" Naruto asked. He thought Ino was being mean and doubting his training

"Jounin exams are only held in your respective village. You couldn't have taken one in another village. She somehow knew you'd be a Chunin and said that when you returned, the two of you would train together to get used to each other, take a couple missions together and then take the upcoming Jounin exams." Shikamaru said

"Oh, that makes sense. So what are you doing in Konoha anyway, Temari?" Naruto asked. It didn't slip his mind before they were just talking about other stuff

"A couple reasons. I'm the Konoha-Suna ambassador, so I naturally have to be in-between Konoha and Suna very often. I'm working with Shikamaru on planning for the upcoming Chunin exams. I'm also here to visit my boyfriend." Temari answered as Shikamaru grabbed her hand.

"I never saw that coming." Naruto said. Naruto's face changed from the smile he had to one that was serious. Temari and Shikamaru were confused.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked

"We have to go. Grandma destroyed my clone that I sent ahead. She wants to see me and Temari immediately." Naruto said as Temari nodded and they body flickered to the hokage tower

Naruto walked in the door to see his two sensei, the hokage, Shizune, and Ino. He knew they were all there because his clone dispelling. He was followed by Temari.

"Glad you two could join us. I have a mission for team Kakashi which is from today Kakashi, Naruto and Ino. Temari will accompany team Kakashi on this mission because they are heading to Suna. Your mission is to save the Kazekage Gaara, who has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki." Tsunade said

(AN: This arc will mostly follow canon since Ino has the exact same skill level as Shippuden Sakura plus her Yamanaka clan jutsu.)

They quickly travelled to Suna and upon arrival they saw the village in disarray. Kankuro was poisoned from one of the Akatsuki members. Ino immediately stepped forward and got to work. In little to no time she had him healed. Kakashi was attacked by the Suna elder, known as Lady Chiyo. She believed him to be his father, but her brother calmed her down and told her that the white fang was dead. Kakashi introduced himself as his son. Chiyo apologized and then mentally applauded Ino's skill and assumed that it wouldn't be long before she would be a better medic than Tsunade herself.

After getting information from Kankuro that the Akatsuki member that he fought was Sasori of the red sands, who originated from Suna, and they headed after him with Chiyo as their fourth member since Temari had to stay in the village. They chased after the Akatsuki members and eventually ran into Itachi Uchiha, who only turned out to be a clone that none of them ever heard of. It used another's body, but looked and acted like the user with all of their abilities just not at full strength. Afterwards they eventually got outside of the hideout of the Akatsuki. Team Gai showed up soon after. Kakashi discovered the type of seal and with Team Gai's help undid it. Team Gai was caught in the trap and had to fight mirror images of themselves. Ino broke the huge rock covering the entrance. When they entered that saw the two Akatsuki members that kidnapped Gaara and a dead Gaara on the ground. After some arguing Deidara flew off on a clay bird with Gaara its mouth. He however, didn't notice the surprise Naruto threw onto the clay bird. It was, what Naruto calls, a sticky grenade(A lightning grenade that can stick to an opponent's body or an surface not the ground). Sasori didn't have time to call out to his companion. Kakashi told Chiyo and Ino that he would work with Naruto if they could handle this. They agreed and followed Naruto outside to Deidara. The two separate fights were rather short. Chiyo used her puppets to keep Sasori's attention, while Ino got close and destroyed the puppet he was hiding in. When faced with Sasori's real body, she used her mind transfer jutsu to enter his mind. Once inside she received a lot of information before knocking him unconscious and returning to her body. Chiyo afterwards destroyed the heart that Sasori still had. Once outside Kakashi caught Gaara's dead body, while Naruto stepped forward to face Deidara. He used a megawatt hammer(A lightning rocket that shoots at the target at an incredible speed and blows up on impact or upon going a certain distance) Deidara was still in the air when this happened and couldn't avoid the attack. He was hit head on and died.

Naruto was sad that Gaara was dead. He tried his own method of healing as well as Ino's, but neither worked. Chiyo on the other hand knew she could help and did what she could. Naruto was shocked at her actions, but when she asked for chakra he readily gave her some. She was using her own creation of jutsu that she called the reanimation jutsu. Not that any of them knew that. Gaara was revived and Chiyo died in his place. When Gaara awoke the first person he saw was Naruto. After that he saw all of his shinobi including his sensei and his siblings. He was happy that they all came for him, but was saddened that the elder had to die. They later returned to Suna, where Chiyo was buried. Everyone, including the Konoha nin paid their respects. The Konoha nin had to leave though. Their mission was over and they had a report to give.

Gaara himself bid them goodbye and shook Naruto's hand before he left. Naruto also congratulated him on the new position. After that they headed home.


	3. Chapter 3

_**I don't own Naruto or Infamous**_

_**Chapter 3**_

Team Kakashi returned to turn in their report. After the official report Ino prepared to tell all the information she received from Sasori's mind.

"The other members of the Akatsuki are Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, Hidan and Kakuzu who are known as the immortal duo because they can't be killed by normal means. Kakuzu has five hearts in the form of four masks in his back. Hidan just can't be killed though regular means. The best way would be to either remove his head and limbs from his body and keep them restrained and separated or just try to evaporize his body entirely. There also is a member who is weird and calls himself Tobi. He acts like a child and if anyone knows some of his skill it might be the leader. Sasori doesn't know the leader's name or what he looks like, but can tell he has a doujutsu that isn't the sharingan or the byakugan (Brief description of the what the eye looks like and Sasori's assumptions). He has a blue haired female partner and her skills are also unknown. Orochimaru also use to member before he quit. Sasori also has a spy inside of Orochimaru's organization. It's Kabuto Yakushi who is supposed to meet Sasori in three weeks from today." Ino said

"That gives us time to plan." Tsunade said

"Do you think me and Naruto can take the Jounin exams now." Ino said

"Of course. We have time before you are going to head out and meet with Kabuto. I also need to find you guys another teammate for the mission though." Tsunade said

The next two weeks went well for Naruto and Ino. In the first week they trained hard together to get a better semblance of teamwork and also started a relationship. Naruto revealed that he knew about Sakura's open hostility towards him, but he wasn't going to hate her or be mean to her. If he did he would be just as wrong as her and the rest of the villagers that treat him unfairly. Naruto also revealed his former status as a Jinchuriki. Ino took the news rather well though. During the second week they took the Jounin exams and got promoted. They were rather easy for Naruto and Ino managed.

It was now finally time for their mission. Tsunade had even found them a teammate. She said that Danzo had offered one of his root shinobi. Tsunade's choices weren't too high when she also had to factor in the possibility of Orochimaru himself being involved. It was unfortunate that Jiraiya wasn't around and she couldn't go she agreed with Danzo's suggestion of sending a root ninja.

Team Kakashi was waiting at the gate and they were shocked to see their teammate. Sakura was there teammate and she looked like she had truly grown in skill. She wore the standard ninja attire with an anbu chest guard instead of the flak jacket. She looked serious.

"Hey Sakura." Naruto greeted his former teammate

"Hello Naruto." Sakura replied. She had gone through Danzo's training and appeared stoic and calm. This unnerved the other members of team Kakashi.

They headed out and got to Tenshi Bridge in good time. They practiced their roles in the situation. Kakashi was going to be transformed into Sasori. He was going to try to get some answers from Kabuto first and then use his sharingan to knock him. If they had any trouble Naruto, Ino, and Sakura would jump in.

Everything was going perfectly until Kabuto started asking for something that he wanted from Sasori. Kakashi couldn't give it to him so he attempted to reach for his sharingan eye and unveil it. His movements caused Kabuto to get weary and he jumped to Sasori's side to dodge a strike from Orochimaru.

"Thank you lord Sasori. If you hadn't have made those subtle movements I would have been dead." Kabuto said. Kakashi was sweating now. Orochimaru was here and it appeared he would have to fight him with Kabuto, without giving away his identity.

Before anymore could happen, Kabuto activated his chakra scalpels and tried to attack Sasori, who jumped back to dodge the attack.

"What's the meaning of this Kabuto?" Kakashi played along. He was lost, why would Kabuto attack his master Sasori.

"Lord Orochimaru released me. I work of my own free will now." Kabuto said

"Then I guess I can drop this disguise then." Kakashi said as he dropped his transformation. Kabuto and Orochimaru were shocked to see Kakashi, but didn't show it.

"Sasori must be dead if you're here." Kabuto concluded

"Why don't you let the brats come out and play." Orochimaru said. It was more of a statement than a question. Kakashi signaled for his team and they appeared.

"Ah the Kyuubi brat. I thought you were killed by my Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru stated

Sakura showed no outward reaction, but she was furious at Orochimaru's words of Sasuke being his. Naruto was calm and collected. He knew Orochimaru was trying to make him angry. It seemed that he knew nothing of Naruto's new abilities though.

Orochimaru taunted some more and got no rise out of the calm Uzumaki, but he did rile up Sakura who jumped at Orochimaru. She was easily swatted away, but that was just a shadow clone. The real Sakura was waiting for her true mission to begin.

Orochimaru stepped up to fight Orochimaru. He was so calm and yet he was fighting on Orochimaru's level easily. It irritated the sanin to no end. Naruto was using taijutsu and non-elemental ninjutsu. Orochimaru couldn't see or detect Naruto's lightning armor in use.

Orochimaru got so frustrated that he and Kabuto just retreated. They later ran across Sakura. Kabuto was shocked that she was a root member when he last checked she was a member of team 7 before Sasuke's defection. She proved herself to them and they took her along. Neither of them knew that her mission from Danzo was to infiltrate them and then kill Sasuke Uchiha.

After their retreat, Naruto entered sage mode to track them down. He was shocked that Sakura was with them and that they weren't fighting. Team Kakashi tracked them silently and arrived at their hideout. They entered the hideout and searched for Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura to learn why she was betraying them, and Sasuke because Naruto wanted to see him again after all the years. He had no plans on claiming the bounty on his head, but he would if he had to. They searched the hideout for a long time until they heard an explosion. At the end of the hall where the explosion took place, they saw Sakura staring up. Team Kakashi ran towards her and saw that she was looking up at Sasuke who was shocked to see Naruto.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked in shock as he activated his sharingan. He could tell that Naruto was different, but it was still Naruto.

"How did you survive? I thought you were dead. Do you know I've been tormented by that day for the past three fucking years!" Sasuke exclaimed the last part. This was a shock to all present seeing the normally stoic boy who appeared to be that way up until the point he saw Naruto.

"I don't really know myself. I died on that day and then I came back. Why have you been tormented?" Naruto asked

"You're by best friend. I wasn't ready to face the consequences of my actions. I turned my grief into determination. Your death drove me to want to kill Itachi more, but not for myself or my clan, but for you." Sasuke said emotionally.

"I'm sorry Sasuke that you had to go through that. I didn't plan this at all. It just happened." Naruto said. Sakura was shocked at what she was seeing. Naruto and her Sasuke-kun were acting like friends. The tension on the room had dropped. Sasuke was no longer cold like he was to her. He was even emotional about Naruto's supposed death. She couldn't believe this. Although her mission from Danzo was to kill Sasuke, her personal mission was to come to him and join him. The changed when he blew the room up upon the sight of her. He even muttered her name beforehand.

Before any could blink Naruto was standing in front of Sasuke. This even shocked Sasuke, who couldn't even see the movement with his fully matured Sharingan, let alone move that fast.

"It's ok Sasuke. I'm sorry for what this has put you through. Just know that I support your decision to kill Itachi and when you're finished, I'll still be your friends. Now try to hit me so Orochimaru doesn't get suspicious." Naruto whispered into Sasuke's ear.

"Ok Naruto. I want to meet after this is all over, but as friends." Sasuke said as he activated his mangekyou sharingan and tried to strike at Naruto with his chokuto as fast as he could go. Naruto easily dodged it and yet again Sasuke couldn't track his moves with his eyes.

This frustrated Sasuke because he thought that he hadn't gotten any stronger. He flared his chakra in irritation, but Orochimaru grabbed his hand.

"Now Sasuke, I say we let them live. They've already defeated at least one Akatsuki member. If you let them live they'll take out more and clear your path to Itachi. From Orochimaru's point of view, he thought that Sasuke had the upper hand. He assumed that Naruto was using Kyuubi's chakra discreetly to help him during their fight. That was something that wouldn't work against Sasuke because he could negate any use of Kyuubi's chakra. Orochimaru smirked and the trio of Orochimaru, Sasuke and Kabuto disappeared, none noticing that Sasuke had a not on him. Not even Naruto's crew noticed this. What they did notice that Sakura was gone again.

Team Kakashi sighed at her actions and headed home. She clearly betrayed the village and wasn't going to come back without a fight, not that any one of them couldn't take her. Besides Naruto couldn't sense her chakra at all, meaning she was good at masking all traces of her chakra, she was using chakra suppression seals, she was suffering from chakra exhaustion, or was just too far away for Naruto's senses.

They had a report to give.

_**With Sasuke **_

Sasuke opened the note to see Naruto's handwriting. The note told him to remember his secondary goal of reviving his clan. A goal that needed a female for. This simple note got Sasuke thinking of all the girls he knew and the possible choices he had for a mate, someone he was attracted to physically and emotionally because a loveless marriage was worse than going through tsukiyomi again.


End file.
